


Lands

by nyctea62442 (pandacchi)



Category: Bandage (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-29
Updated: 2010-07-29
Packaged: 2017-10-24 09:14:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/261641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandacchi/pseuds/nyctea62442
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yukiya's whole existence changes when he meets a singer that turns his world upside down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lands

**Author's Note:**

> Based also on the Cut Scenes in the Making of BANDAGE.

  
The day Yukiya's world turned upside down was a rather hot day of Spring.

He was chilling out with the band he was helping at that time, one of the three he was playing guitar for. Nothing serious, just a temporary replacement; Yukiya never accepted anything more.  
Everything was easy back then: he got to play a lot, many instruments and any genre he wanted. He was the genius everyone admired. But somewhere deep inside, he wondered if there would ever be anyone who could understand his music.  
He didn't particularly like this band, exactly for this reason; he could adapt well to their style, but that didn't mean he had to _like_ it. He was there because the keyboarder was an old friend from his piano school.  
He had been dragged to a random bar after rehearsals, but since he didn't really knew his bandmates he couldn't join any of their conversations. So, he settled to look absent-mindedly at the signboards in the shop on the other side of the road, while calmly sipping his beer. Suddenly, the keyboarder stood up, and Yukiya shifted his attention back on the table.  
"Guys," started his friend. "I have to go now. Have to meet that friend I was talking about earlier, you know, the singer. He needs a replacement keyboard for the weekend." He excused himself. He was looking for the money to pay for his beers and he noticed Yukiya's wordless stare on him. "Yukiya? Do you...wanna come with me?" He asked with a knowing look.  
Yukiya glanced at the rest of the band, who were already diving into another conversation. "Why not."

When they arrived at the empty live house, the first thing Yukiya wondered was how his friend's friend was able to have a whole live house open all to himself.  
"Oh, because Natsu's friends with the owner." The keyboarder laughed softly. "He is practically friends with anyone, you see. I have yet to meet a person who could dislike Takasugi Natsu, honestly."  
Then they went down the stairs and were met by the sound of a sloppy classical guitar. When Yukiya's eyes adjusted to the darker room, he could see a young man sitting on one of the amplifiers on stage, holding his guitar. He had dark brown hair, short compared to Yukiya's own, a white t-shirt and a pair of torn blue jeans. He didn't notice their presence and kept playing a melody new to Yukiya's expert ears. He was an interesting being; even though his guitar was sloppy, Yukiya could feel the emotion.  
And then he started singing.  
A clear, bright voice, stable and sunny harmony; a high note; a little vibrato; a low phrase, almost a whisper; then bright again. And Yukiya suddenly saw it.  
The stage wasn't there anymore, the lights were not lights, they were ray of sun through the leaves of a small tree, wrapping up the singer in a soft embrace; and there was a blue sky, with white clouds that could be anything he wanted them to be, a dragon, a dolphin, a guitar; and he could feel the air changing, he could almost breath the fresh breeze. His heart was caught in his throat.

And then, too soon, it was over.  
He stopped singing and Yukiya was brought back to this dark world. It was the first time in his life he had such a mind-blowing experience, and he honestly didn't know what to make out of it. What had that singer done to him?  
"Hey, thanks for coming!" Yukiya watched him stand up and speak with a little sore voice to his friend, a small lazy smile on his lips  
"Long time no see, Natsu!" The keyboarder high-fived Natsu and smiled broadly. "Was that new material?"  
The other shook lightly his head. "It's something Ryuuji made me listen to yesterday, it was just stuck in my head." His eyes were playful, and full of something Yukiya couldn't really place, couldn't understand.  
"But I met with Ryuuji earlier and he said you were completely wasted last night!"  
Natsu laughed, and his laugh was just as clear and bright as his singing voice had been. "That is why my head is still spinning and stuck on that song!"  
Then, there was a moment of pause in which Natsu shifted his curious stare to Yukiya. "Ah, were are my manners! Natsu, this is Yukiya, an old friend of mine. Yukiya, this is Takasugi Natsu, resident idiot of a nameless band."  
"I can't deny that!" Natsu laughed again. "Nice to meet you, Yukiya. Do you play too?"  
Yukiya was grateful his friend hadn't introduced him as 'the famous genius', like everyone else seemed so keen on doing recently. "Ah, yes, the guitar."  
Natsu nodded pensively, muttering a soft 'heee', then he turned again to his friend. "Shall we go get a beer or something?"  
"Didn't you say your head's still spinning??"  
"Yes, and I'm sober. So if I drink it will start spinning in the other direction and I will feel better. Come on, let's go!"  
Yukiya failed to follow his logic, but a glance at his friend told him it was pointless trying to look for logic when it came to Takasugi Natsu.

The exact moment Natsu changed his world was only half an hour later, when they remained alone at the table while their friend was in the bathroom.  
"Ne, Yukiya..." Natsu's words were surprisingly steady for how much he had drunk. "Wanna join my band?"  
Yukiya stared. It wasn't easy to get a reaction out of the guitarist, but it seemed like Natsu had a strange power over him. He blinked.  
"You have never heard me play."  
Natsu shrugged while drinking his beer. "I don't need to. I don't ask people to join for how well they play, that's dumb."  
Yukiya couldn't say he didn't like this reasoning. "Who's your band?"  
"We don't have a name yet, we formed just some weeks ago. Kenji keeps calling us FAX, though. Ah, Kenji is the bassist; and then there's Ryuuji at the drums." Then he frowned. "We do have a guitarist, but I don't like him."  
Yukiya's first thought was if that meant Natsu liked _him_ , then. "So you want to kick him out?"  
"Nothing's really decided yet, so it will be more like, exclude him? I wasn't the one calling him, anyway; he just happened to be there. Are you already stable in a band?"  
"No. Just replacing here and there. I don't really like being tied down, sorry."  
Natsu smiled, and it reached his eyes. "I don't like that either."  
Yukiya observed him for a long moment. "You seem very free."  
"I am. I'm free to make my music with people I like, isn't that great? I'm not trying to tie you down, I only want to make music with you. Would you consider the offer?"  
Yukiya held his gaze.  
"Sure." and he was.

  
One year and a half later, LANDS had already signed a contract with Yukari Nobuko and HC Records.  
Yukiya was living alone, in a small apartment in the centre of Tokyo. Natsu was looking for a place to stay too; now that he finally had an incoming, he could afford the apartment he had always dreamt to live in. Unfortunately, that dream-like place was really hard to find, and Natsu settled to stay over at Yukiya's until he wasn't lucky.

That cold November day, Yukiya had dragged back home a drunk Natsu, carrying him on his shoulders. He couldn't take the bike, he didn't trust Natsu's grip in that situation and he'd never take the risk of him falling off. He struggled to open his door, the weight on his back not helping his case. When they were finally in, Yukiya dropped Natsu on the bed, and he ended up falling on it too, for the exhaustion. He planned to take a breath and then move to the futon on the floor, leaving to Natsu his bed, but the singer wasn't so eager to let go of him.  
Natsu moved incredibly fast, and before Yukiya could do something about it or even register his movements, Natsu was sprawled on top of Yukiya, head on his chest and left arm around his waistline. When Yukiya looked down, he could only see messy brown locks and the tip of his nose; he sighed and lay back down on the bed.  
The room was really silent; it was so late that there wasn't even traffic outside his window. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a television: his neighbour, the old Igarashi-san, was a bit deaf and he always watched television at the highest volumes, so that sometimes Yukiya could even make out the conversations. That night was so silent, that he could clearly listen to the late night news. There had been another attack in a place Yukiya couldn't pronounce the name of, violence during a pacific riot in Russia, world leaders talking about missiles and wishes of peace. Yukiya wondered if anything of that had really something to do with him...sometimes he felt really small. And sometimes he felt that he couldn't care less, because he had his own wars to win, without having to think about other people's.  
Natsu shifted lightly; Yukiya looked at him again. Through the body contact, he could feel Natsu's heart beating. He strived his ears, blocking out the annoying sound of the television; Tum-tum, he could almost hear it now. Tum-tum-tum, a relaxing yet desperate beat. Tum-tum-tum, a rhythm that he wanted to be his. Tum-tum-tum, and suddenly, there was a melody in his head, a guitar that adapted to the rhythm; soft and clear.  
Yukiya kept listening carefully to the beat of Natsu's heart, while notes and words flew into his head.

When three days later he presented the first recording of "Hatachi no Sensou", he tried to avoid Natsu's eyes as much as he could; he didn't have to try so hard, though, because all throughout the song, Natsu listened with his eyes closed. When the last note resounded in the stereo, Natsu frowned; he stood up, while Kenji and Ryuuji were complimenting Yukiya, and he grabbed Yukiya's electric guitar, shoving it into his face. "Play it, I want to sing."  
There was only Yukiya and his guitar, no drums, no bass, no keyboard, no tum-tum; but Yukiya could hear it all. And then Natsu sang.

Arumi waited until they were the only ones left, to tell him her opinion. "You wrote a difficult song."  
He didn't say anything. Sometimes Yukiya was taken aback by how well Arumi could read him.  
"Natsu is the only one who can sing this song." She was sitting at her keyboard; she absent-mindedly stroked the keys to reproduce the beat. "I like it."  
Yukiya didn't ask, had never asked. But he had seen Arumi's reaction to his naming the band LANDS; she understood, she must have seen it too.  
"You know," she continued. "Sometimes I wish more people would see him the way we do."  
But sometimes, Yukiya was just fine with that, because it was _theirs_. Yukiya would never let it disappear.  



End file.
